Regency Tea Room — Restaurant in Bath

I have never had such diabolical service. If I could choose a zero star review I would. We attended the tea rooms with my mother in law for a special birthday. When we arrived we were seated to the left as you walk in. Not even in the tea room per se and just outside of it. Right next to the kitchen and in front of the check in desk. On entrance the room had a charity shop aroma which was not pleasant. It was a hot day and the staff were all in these outfits which is fine but they were all complaining about the heat. We waited 1.5 hours to receive our afternoon tea. We were offered one drink in this time. I had a raspberry lemonade. It wasn't from the fridge nor did the staff have any ice. It was not refreshing. The tray they served the drinks on was full of grime and dirt too. Because of where we were sat we could hear all the staff in the kitchen swearing and getting moody with each other. One of the girls went into the kitchen and said everyone is looking at me and the other girl says angrily " stop looking at us". How rude. What else are we supposed to do. We were told 45 minutes in that there was going to be a delay due to them having to prepare gluten free sandwiches for another table. One of the staff members burnt some scones (which are not made fresh, just shop bought) and the supervisor just said sprinkle some more icing sugar on them so they can't see. (this is all happening behind us because of where we were sat. The servers did this in front of us and didn't even try to hide the fact that they were doing this. The scones were not black but definitely over done and should not have been served. I asked for a flat white with my Mr Darcy Afternoon Tea. I could hear the staff in the kitchen asking how do i make a flat white. They were swearing, laughing, not working at all. When we finally get our cream tea, one tuna sandwich had one bit of sweetcorn in and another two the tiniest amount of filling. We asked for these to be remade. The bread was not the nicest. We were told, we had to guess the fillings. The scones were presented the other side of the sandwiches and had salad underneath - yuck. Thank god we were not given the burnt scones but our scones were not the nicest, rock hard, crunchy even. We were given 3 pots of jam and one pot of cream. (between 4) When i asked for another cream the server took it from a different table and gave it to us. When challenged she said she didn't, albeit I watched her to do this. The supervisor was in the kitchen saying if they don't ask for a discount don't give them any. When guests were coming to check in they were queuing around our table which was off putting. Overall unorganised chaos and poor customer service. If we hadn't of pre paid I would have been asking...

I was really excited for this experience, but in the end I left feeling like it was alright but nothing special. We arrived 15 minutes early to our reservstion and asked staff if it was okay to head into the tea room which they agreed to and encouraged, but when we entered the staff inside told us the table wouldn't be ready until exact time of the reservation and we should go back downstairs to wait. Unfortunately, the stairwell gets very crowded due to the layout of the building so it was difficult to go up and down the stairs. If there was an area to wait upstairs or if staff didn't encourage us to go up early, I think the experience would have started off better.

The afternoon tea itself took a very long time to come out despite it being a set menu that we booked in advance. I enjoyed the charming little timer to let you know when to pour your tea, and the tea itself was good. The finger sandwiches were standard. The scones were served warm, and the plain scone was delicious! Unfortunately, the fruit scone was the opposite: hard, dry, and tasted as if it had been sitting out for a long time. All the pastries on top were okay, but nothing was particularly special. I was hoping for nice theming of tea sets or desserts at the Regency Tea Room, but in the end it just is an okay afternoon tea that could be found elsewhere.

Overall, I still enjoyed my time, but I am not sure if I would come back to the tea room even if I visit the...

Mr Darcy Afternoon Tea: it's... Ok. It's not bad, but it's not great either. There was a good selection of teas and beverages available as part of the tea. We were advised we could ask for top-ups, but sadly these were offered only when we had finished our full afternoon tea 2 hours later, and staff were not easily grabbable. They did appear to be fully booked so perhaps it was just down to being rushed. Staff were good with allergens and accomodating these. The sandwiches were good, the odd dry edge but I had the same at Limewood last week for a lot more money! The scones were a good size but slightly overbaked and therefore dry, which was a shame. Strawberry, raspberry and apricot jams were available and enough clotted cream. The 'sweet treats' were a real disappointment- we were served 2 pastry tartlets and a raspberry macaron each. The macaron was lovely, but sadly the tarts were soggy, filled with a custard -not creme patisserie- which is why they had gone soggy, and had a bit of fruit on top. I looked in envy over at my colleague who had the gluten free tea and she had a selection of small cakes as well as the macaron. She took these home in a lovely box. Overall, for the touristy element, I think £29.95 isn't a bad price for afternoon tea. But, no extra sandwiches were offered, the dry scones were a shame and the tartlets were just disappointing. It's nearly there, but the details are...